


I come to you in pieces

by Elisexyz



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, no Hydra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-12 20:58:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16879071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: “I should have checked before attacking,” she protests, moving a step closer to better inspect his face. He removes the cloth to let her see, knowing from experience that he’d better let her check as many times as she pleases. “Does it hurt a lot?” she adds, biting her bottom lip. It’s adorable, and he can’t hide a small grin.





	I come to you in pieces

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fill for the "Bloody Nose" prompt [on my badthingshappenbingo card on Tumblr](http://heytheredeann.tumblr.com/post/180899425369/bloody-nose-fill-for-the-bad-things-happen). I... don't really know where this came from, honestly.

“I’m sorry,” she repeats, for what must be the millionth time. “I’m _so_ sorry.”

“It’s fine, really,” he assures, pressing the cloth she provided against his still bleeding nose. That was a good swing, it’s going to leave one hell of a bruise. The umbrella she used to attack him is left abandoned on the ground, and Grant distractedly reflects that he should probably provide her with a baseball bat, or something else more resembling of an actual weapon, just in case it isn’t him at the door next time.

“I should have checked before attacking,” she protests, moving a step closer to better inspect his face. He removes the cloth to let her see, knowing from experience that he’d better let her check as many times as she pleases. “Does it hurt a lot?” she adds, biting her bottom lip. It’s adorable, and he can’t hide a small grin.

“It’s _okay_ ,” he emphasises. “I’ve had worse, it’ll pass. And you did the right thing, it could have been anybody. Shoot first, ask questions later, that’s how you survive.”

Normally, he knows better than to just barge in unannounced, but he had an encounter with a couple of SHIELD agents during his supply run, and although there was a good chance that they only found him by pure accident, considering how careful he is to keep his face off any cameras on the streets, it left him pretty on edge.

More specifically, it left him wondering if they had found the safehouse where they have been hiding. It’s relatively safe: it’s one of John’s, and nobody except the two of them knew about it, SHIELD shouldn’t look for them there.

Yet, he spent the whole ride back with a lump in his throat, and when he found the front door slightly open he assumed that something was wrong, so he barged in without warning and got a blow in the face for his trouble, before Jemma realized that it was just him.

It’s actually pretty comforting to see first-hand that she’s going to put up one hell of a fight if someone ever tries to break in.

Not that that is going to do her much good against _magic_ , but hey, it’s a start. If you can’t stop them from taking you, at least make it hurt.

“I didn’t break it, did I?” she insists.

She’s always so _concerned_ about him, and he shamelessly loves it. It’s sweet and warm, certainly a welcome break from the shitstorm that their life has become since the takeover in SHIELD.

“Nope, I’ve broken my nose in the past, this isn’t it. I’ll be as good as new, don’t worry,” he assures, spreading his arm to invite her to stop fussing over the damage and snuggle a bit instead.

She inhales sharply, with a last dubious glance at his face, but she complies to the silent request, curling up against him on the couch, her cheek pressed against his shoulder and her arms wrapped around his torso.

“Everything okay today?” she asks, after a few moments of silence.

He debates sparing her the worry and keeping his unpleasant encounter to himself, but he’s pretty sure that he’s sporting a couple of new bruises, and she’ll _definitely_ notice, so he’d better avoid the fight altogether.

“I ran into a couple of SHIELD agents, but I handled it,” he says, casually.

As expected, she stiffens against him, pulling away enough to look at him at the face. “What? Are you okay? How did they find you?”

“I took care of it, and I think it was just bad luck. I made sure that I wasn’t being followed before coming back here,” he explains, stroking her arm reassuringly. “Don’t worry, we’re still safe.”

She mumbles something that should probably be taken as an agreement, although he knows perfectly well that now the uneasiness won’t leave her for at least the next couple of days.

He’ll forever be grateful that he managed to get to her before they could do much, but those few hours that she spent captive after seeing the other humans in SHIELD’s ranks either being killed or imprisoned left their mark.

SHIELD has never had a particularly human-friendly policy: people born without magic were accepted in their ranks, but they were looked down and considered by most the weak links of the chain. Grant has learnt how to compensate with training _and_ how to use this prejudice to his advantage. Jemma is simply enough of a genius that she was never deemed unnecessary.

Director Fury dying set things in motion for a civil war to start among SHIELD: many higher ups and a large number of soldiers turned out to have been waiting for a good opportunity to set things right, by getting rid of the weak and untrustworthy humans. They call themselves the ‘Real’ SHIELD, and although Coulson tried to set up some kind of resistance, he’s only one man, and the people who would have supported him were few and far in between – Gonzales didn’t waste much time getting rid of those.

Grant knows that May and Coulson joined the new ranks, he isn’t sure if to try and keep things under control from within or not, and frankly he doesn’t care. Skye, last he heard, went off the grid, which makes sense: she was fairly new to this anyway. Fitz died trying to prevent Jemma from being taken, and Grant curses himself every day for not having been there to stop it.

He got to her, though, in the end, and that’s the most important thing.

She’s bruised and bent, but she’s alive, and she’s safe.

With SHIELD, he has had the chance of shutting down a facility where magical people tried to experiment on humans to fix whatever went wrong with them to shut them out from such an important part of the world, and it wasn’t pretty. Jemma’s brain is too valuable for them to just kill her off, chances are they would have kept her prisoner, waiting to have a relatively sure way to fix her – if they don’t have it already.

“I think I’ve changed my mind,” Jemma murmurs, carefully.

He looks down on her, frowning. “About what?”

“Training,” she says, after a brief pause. “You don’t have to teach me everything, but— I believe that I could make good use of some tricks. Just in case.”

Grant had offered to teach her when they first arrived, although it was more out of paranoia than anything else, considering that they are well-hidden and he is never gone for a long time anyway, but she declined. She didn’t give an explanation and he didn’t ask, but he didn’t fail to notice, even back where they were still working in SHIELD, her discomfort around weapons. He can take a wild guess as to where that came from: Grant, being the paranoid bastard John taught him to be, checked the files of every person on his team before boarding on the Bus, so he knows that Jemma’s parents were killed by a professional, when she was a kid. She was in the house too, she just managed to hide. He supposes that that would make the idea of learning how to shoot not too appealing.

“We can steer clear of weapons,” he offers. “Just some self-defence, how’s that?”

She snuggles a little closer, and he can tell that she’s smiling even without looking. “It sounds perfect.”

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including: 
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> If you don’t want a reply, for any reason, feel free to sign your comment with “whisper” and I will appreciate it but not respond!


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